Ultimate Security: Finding a Refuge in Difficult Times (3 page)

In essence, once we make a commitment to the Lord, God accepts total responsibility for us in every situation and circumstance
“for his name’s sake.”
He does not do it because of our goodness or because we deserve His care. He gives us total security because He is faithful to His name. For the glory and honor of His name, He will keep His covenant and His commitment to us.

In the fourth verse, David goes on to say,
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
These words express a security that goes beyond time and into eternity. When our time comes—and it must come for each of us—we will say farewell to the temporal world and step out of it. When we do, we will not need to fear any evil. Even in the
“valley of the shadow of death”
the Lord is with us. He is there to uphold us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, and to receive us.

When we make a commitment to the Lord,
God accepts total responsibility for us—in
every situation and circumstance.

As a minister, the responsibility I often faced with people whose time had come was to bring them as far as I could—right to the entrance of the valley of the shadow. That would be the point when I, as a human minister, would then hand over to the eternal Good Shepherd the one whose life had been committed to Him and watch Him take responsibility for it. I had this experience with my first wife, Lydia, a beautiful Christian and a faithful servant of the Lord. I was by her side when she died, and I led her right to the entrance of the valley. Then, at a certain point, I could do no more, and the Lord was faithful to His commitment as she went peacefully into His presence. The Lord will do the same for everyone who makes that unreserved commitment to Him. He is faithful in life, faithful in death, faithful for time, and faithful for eternity. There is no evil power in the universe that can disrupt the relationship between the Lord and the one who is committed to Him.

Paul expressed this idea so eloquently:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

There is nothing in the whole created universe that can break the sacred relationship between the Lord and the soul who has turned to Jesus—the life that has been built on the eternal Rock, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Above all else, such a foundation provides true, total, and permanent security.

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“IN THE BEGINNING GOD…”

Having seen that true and permanent security is to be found only in a relationship with Jesus Christ, it will be helpful for us now to review
how
we have been brought into Christ as part of God’s sovereign plan for each of us. Through the Scriptures, we will come to understand that we are totally secure in God’s choice.

I invite you to join me on a wonderful journey that starts in eternity, leads us through the various phases of time, and takes us on again into eternity. If you will follow me in the path by which I will be leading you in this chapter, it will bring you to a place of total security in God.

We will begin our journey at the first verse of the Bible:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
(Genesis 1:1). For virtually all of recorded history, human beings have speculated about what is behind the created universe and what keeps it going. Many different answers have been offered. Some philosophers have used the phrase “the first cause,” knowing that something must be behind the origin of all creation. Is it chance? Is it a “big bang,” as some physicists suggest? Is it a mindless physical process—one of which nobody knows the origin, or why it continues spontaneously, or how it will end? Is the universe something totally impossible to understand or to explain?

Our Creator-Father Gives Us Purpose

The Bible’s answer to these questions is very clear and precise. It declares that behind the universe, there is a personal Creator who is also a Father. Three important concepts are included in that statement. Behind the universe is a
Person
. That Person is a
Creator
. Additionally, that Person is a
Father
.

The fact that the Creator is also a Father is extremely important. Why? Because your view of the origin of the universe will determine your perspective on yourself and your life. If you believe that your life is just a chance happening—that your existence is unexplainable, that you are merely a victim of inexorable physical forces that you cannot control but that control you—then what is the reason for your being here?

However, if you believe the record of the Bible, then behind everything that happens, there is a Creator. Even more, He is a Person to whom you can relate as a person. Further, not only is He a Person, but He is also a Father. If these statements are true, then you have a reason and a purpose for existing. That knowledge will change your whole outlook on life.

A minister friend once related the following experience to me. He had been ministering at a meeting in the inner city of a very large American metropolis. The meeting ended about dusk. It was a cold, windy evening, and he was alone on the sidewalk in a very gray, drab, cheerless, and unappealing situation. In those dark, oppressive surroundings, he felt extremely lonely, discouraged, and depressed. Then a thought came to him, and he began to whisper one word over and over again: “Father…Father…Father…Father.”

For several minutes, he said the word “Father,” and nothing else but that one word. As he persisted, his whole attitude changed. The darkness seemed to lose its oppressiveness, and he felt the surrounding presence of One who loved him and was watching over his every step.

You can experience the same sense of security when you realize that behind this universe there is a Father who created you, who loves you, and who has a purpose for you.

Our Creator-Father Is from Everlasting

Continuing with our examination of our Father-Creator, we will see next that God Himself is without beginning or end:

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2)

Notice that the psalmist did not say, “You
were
God,” or, “You
will be
God.” He said,
“You
are
God.”
God lives in the eternal present. He has no beginning and no end. He exists forever, and He is the Source of all that has come into being.

The Alpha and the Omega

The eternal God is both beginning and ending. In Revelation, we read these words:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

Alpha
is the first letter of the Greek alphabet;
omega
is the last letter. God says, “I am where it all began, and I am where it is all going to end up.
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega.’
” This is the same as saying, using the English alphabet, “I am the A and the Z.”

God is. God was. God is to come. The past, present, and future all meet in the eternal being of God. The same thought is repeated at the end of the book of Revelation:

[Jesus said,] “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:13)

You can never get outside of God. He was before you, and He will continue to exist for the rest of time into eternity.

The Author and Perfecter of Our Faith

Not only is God the beginning, but He also takes responsibility for everything He has begun. God never begins something He is not going to see through to the end. He never leaves any of His purposes half-finished. He never has to stop in the middle of His plan and say, “I really don’t know what to do with this from here on.” Similarly, He never has to say, “I just can’t accomplish what I set out to do.” Those words are not found in God’s vocabulary.

In Hebrews 12:2, we are encouraged to look toward Jesus as
“the author and perfecter
[
“finisher”
kjv, nkjv]
of our faith.”
Our faith begins with Him, and our faith culminates in Him. He has not begun something in our lives that He is unable or unwilling to complete. Just as we trust Him for our beginning, we can trust Him to carry us to completion.

Paul gave the same assurance, which he expressed to the Christians in Philippi:

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

God has begun His work in each of us. He will see it through; and when He is finished, it will be perfect. There will be no way to improve upon His work. When you and I understand that God takes complete responsibility for our lives, we can have confidence. We no longer have to feel like snowflakes—just drifting. Many times, I have told people, “You’re not an ‘accident waiting to happen.’ God has begun a work in your life, and He’s going to complete that work. You don’t need to be anxious. You just need to trust Him.”

Just as we trust Jesus for our beginning,
we can trust Him to carry us to completion.

Our Creator-Father Is Our Salvation

In addition to all that we have seen thus far, this wonderful God Himself—our Creator, our Father—is our salvation. It is most important to understand that salvation is in God Himself. No one less than God could be our salvation. Isaiah testified to this truth:

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. (Isaiah 12:2)

I am sorry for people who try to find salvation in a church, in the law, in a doctrine, or in a denomination. How flimsy and how incapable these substitutes are of providing the salvation we need. In contrast, when we comprehend that our salvation is in God Himself, then we can say, as Isaiah said,
“I will trust and not be afraid.”
Knowing that God is our salvation gives us confidence and security; it removes fear and anxiety.

Our problem today in the Christian church is that we are prone to be extremely self-centered and earth-centered. In reality, there is no peace, no security, and no confidence for those whose lives, thoughts, and purposes are centered entirely on themselves.

There was a period in the history of astronomy when it was believed that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun, the other stars, and the other planets revolved around the earth. Then, along came an astronomer named Copernicus (and later Kepler and Galileo) who declared that the earth is not the center of the universe; rather, the sun is the center of our solar system. This concept became known as the “Copernican Revolution” because it revolutionized the way human beings thought about the universe.

We need a similar kind of revolution in our thinking today. We are too earth-centered. We need to see that we are not the center of our personal universe. Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness (see Malachi 4:2), is the center. We revolve around Him.

When we are willing to acknowledge this fact, it takes away our sense of insecurity and instability. As long as we are relying on our own efforts and our own abilities, we will never be secure. We will find true security only when we are able to rest in the fact that God is the one and only Source of our salvation.

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GOD IS IN
TOTAL CONTROL

Having recognized that God is behind the created universe, let us go on to examine a related truth: Everything has its source and its fulfillment in God. This truth was summed up simply but profoundly by Paul in his letter to the Romans. Referring to God, he wrote,
“For from him and through him and to him are all things”
(Romans 11:36).

I am impressed by the fact that in this entire verse, as expressed in the English language, there is not one word that has more than one syllable. There are twelve words of just one syllable—and yet you could not say anything more important or more profound than those words
. “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Everything comes from God; everything comes through God; and everything comes to its fulfillment in God.

From this verse, are you able to catch just a glimpse of God’s supreme sovereignty over the entire universe? There is nothing in the universe that God does not control—from the largest to the smallest. Let us consider some statements in the Scriptures that make this truth clear.

God Controls the Stars

[God] determines the number of the stars [we know there are billions upon billions of them] and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. (Psalm 147:4–5)

There is no limit to God’s knowledge and understanding. There is nothing that escapes His attention. The prophet Isaiah said,

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these [the starry hosts]? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

How that impresses me! God deals with each of the billions upon billions of stars individually, calling them by name. Not only does He know them by name, but He also keeps the stars in place by His power, His knowledge, and His strength. I would like to quote here from one of my earlier books, entitled
Through the Psalms with Derek Prince.
In that work, I made the following comment about Psalm 147:4–5, particularly the phrase
“
[God]
determines the number of the stars.”
Here is what I wrote:

The psalmist gives us an objective, scientific standard by which to measure the knowledge and power of the Lord. Human astronomers would not dare to calculate the number of stars in the universe. They do tell us, however, that it amounts to billions upon billions. Yet God knows the exact number of the stars. He is in direct contact with each one and He controls its movements.
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